fabled_albionfandomcom-20200215-history
Gaullia
Musical Theme: Silence and Motion by Nobuo Uematsu See Also: Creatures of Gaullia Gaullia is the second largest nation on the Baltican continent, with the greatest and most powerful being Russiya to the south. It's symbol is the silver crescent moon bordering the red earth with a straight red bar representing the horizon. It's national colors are silver and red. It's current ruler is Queen Gabrielle St. Claire and the heir apparent is Prince Renard L'Illustre St. Clair. Despite it's large borders, it's vast rural regions consist largely of farmlands. At one point, Gaullia was one of the largest empires in the world under the reign of the tyrannical King Leonard III. This was two hundred years ago, and it's hold over the world has dwindled to say the least. During it's glory years under King Leonard III, it reaped many resources from Hellas, leaving the nation tattered and not on the friendliest terms. Hellas, with the help of Queen Sparrow of Albion eventually expanded their powers in the Iepetan War fifty years ago, effectively bringing down the bully nation. Gaullia eventually bought it's way out of being smashed by Hellas and went into massive debt with Russiya. Despite Russiya's offered "protection" of Gaullia, Albion still won the Iepatan War, freed Hellas from Gaullian dominion and often has troops in Gaullia harvesting the country's rich silver deposits. Gaullia is seen as the "Bitch of Baltica," being under the thumb of dominant Russiya, the eye of Germania's leaders, and probably not going to get any help from Noregr and Iberia any time soon for it's megalomaniacal aggression in the past. Gaullia has a trade relationship with Noregr and a seemingly neutral relationship with both Iberia and Germania. Recent History 'The Electric Renaissance' By 1752, Gaullia's core city of Saint Clair is in the peak of an artistic and technological renaissance. After the death of the former Queen Isabelle St. Clair (Renard's tyranical grandmother,) art and technological advancements, which had been put on hold for a good sixty years was finally allowed to flourish in public once more. Machinery very quickly took over the kingdom in a short span of time as it shot through to an age of mixed industry and enlightenment as they embraced the coexistance of man and machine. Unique to Gaullia is the highly experimental use of small automaton assistants. Very few are built to be taller than four feet and many are stout. Automatons keep the city clean and often inhabit the homes of the wealthy as servants. Other countries seem to view Gaullia as a country of heathens for their relliance on machinery. The city of invention has a highly steampunk aesthetic, with much of Gaullian's technology being powered by steam for the last hundred years. In 1721, researchers in Saint Clair developed a method of harnessing and generating electrcity and has since been pioneering the Baltican continent's electrical technology. Russiya has profited most from this "partnership" with Gaullia, pushing it's scientists to develop complex electrical weaponry, such as the Solid State Company's ZB42 electrical rail gun. (Renard eventually uses a ZB42 and gets knocked on his ass... Aleister Waltz 11:15, May 27, 2011 (UTC) ) Many of Gaullia's best minds have defected from the country to escape Russiya's potential use of a new form of Gaullian energy discovered in 1742; these inventors and scientists would eventually join Albion's Argentum Nobilis Regiment's technological development and research unit, the Apollo Batallion. 'Lac Ciel and Laharl' In the south-western portion of Gaullia, there lies a large crater that has, over the course of the thousands of years since it was hit, been filled with rainwater and formed a massive lake. The true origins of this crater are unknown; most scientists speculate that a very large object collided with the Gaullian countryside versus another theory that speculates it was a volcano that blew it's lid. Smaller craters dot the Gaullian plains in the immediate area, further implying it was a celestial impact and not volcanic activity. Despite it's beauty, many people have generally steered clear of Lac Ciel due to it's tendency to release deadly gasses into the air at random. A number of abandoned villages border Lac Ciel, a few even with unrecovered bodies that have since deteriorated over the years where hundreds died of asphyxiation. These villages include Bord du Lac and Ofelia. Local lore holds that an angry lake god called Laharl lives under the lake. In 1742, Lac Ciel was explored thoroughly when the technology to explore the area during the event of a gas emission was developed. Deep diving gear had also recently been invented, which allowed for exploration of the area beneath the water's surface. What they found was the remains of an ancient city, furthering the theory that Lac Ciel was formed by a celestial impact. The ancient city at the depths of Lac Ciel was called Laharl, after the mythological deity of the lake. Laharl was excavated over the course of the next ten years in secret; Gaullia, under the thumb of Russiya, was desperate to keep this a secret operation, especially when they found a dim and dying "power source" at the heart of Laharl that they were able to harness and research. This power source not only carried an ethereal alternative to electricity but a wealth of data from Laharl that Gaullian researchers have spent the last ten years reverse-engineering in secret, plotting an upcoming rise against Russiya. History Gaullia, in the past, was known as the land of silver and red soil, particularly on the Khanty Coasts shared with Germania. The soil had a unique rusty-red hue to it and is indicative of Northern Baltica's mediterranean climate, which Iberia sees the most of. The further south, however, the colder Baltica seems to get, leaving Russiya as something of a frozen wasteland. One iconic image of Gaullia other than the numerous art halls and the statue of Saint Clair is of vast farms with rich, red soil. Silver was a valued resource to the early Gaullians; it was used to disinfect water and food during storage and was also effective in the treating of burns. Through the use of silver, Gaullia was one of the first nations to develop an effective, non-mana-based antibacterial agent for the treatment of wounds. This became a necessity, as mana seems to be a resource exclusive to the continent of Avalonia (in which Albion and Samarkand produce the greatest quantities.) They worshipped a goddess of silver called Saint Clair, who was said to have placed them upon the land to make beautiful carvings with the silver and to glorify her through their works. Saint Clair became a patron saint of the arts and innovation with her icon symbol being silver. It's healing properties only further established her as a mother goddess. 'The Following of L'Illustre' Ancient Gaullia's reverence of the metal gold and it's conductive abilities to it's few (revered) will users became the birth of Gaullia's culture and religion. According to the ancient Gaullians, the coast with red soil that would later be home to the city of Saint Clair was the birthplace of the god of thunderstorms. As the people spread across the land, so did their reverence of thunderstorms and this god of rain and lightning. Lightning gave them fire and the rain gave them water for their crops; the further people settled from the coast, the greater their dependency on rain became. L'Illustre was a god they came to worship who embodied the blessed force of rain and the fearsome force of lightning. Mythology tells stories of heathens and evil men struck down by L'Illustre during storms—these examples of people getting hit by lightning became what the people feared. Finally, there came a man who was ridiculed by his village for his eccentricity and strange inventions. He was known only as Leopold the Vessel, for he was struck in the back by lightning and was the first recorded Gaullian to survive the blast. The people came to listen to Leonard and revere him for surviving this. He told prophecies and claimed to be spreading the words of L'Illustre, effectively gaining a massive following of people who believed he had honestly become the human vessel for their beloved god. In truth, the man was just a looney with a magnificent idea who was surrounded by gullible farmer tribes. Leopold the Vessel eventually lived out his days as a reknowned religious leader and prophet in Saint Clair and from his line would eventually come the Gaullian King, Leonard III. While Leopold was not the first King of the Gaullians, he was the first to unite the scattered tribes. 'King Leonard III' In the year 1412, a Prince was born the the Gaullian Royal Family who would eventually take a successful nation and make it into a world power and a dominant empire. He was known as Leonard III, and with his unmatched power over electric-based will, he was revered as the second coming of L'Illustre. Initially, the Kingdom feared the death of Leonard II, believing their good King's son to be mentally unstable and unfit for such a position of power. Tales hold that Leonard III once lead a haphazardly organized surprise attack on Italia, completely unannounced even to his father. On a bloodthirsty whim, countless lives were lost when Italia's army tried to defend itself. However, the nation fell, assimilated into Gaullia and became the first of what would become the Gaullian Empire under Leonard III's tyrannical military rule. By his death in 1452, he had gone completely mad, killing hundreds of his servants on violent whims, wives and concubines alike who could not bear him a son, and an entire generation of politicians whom he thought were plotting his assassination. The only man he had trusted was a homeless vagabond whom he witnessed surviving a strike of lightning on a Germanian countryside. The man was known as Vark the Vagrant and taken under Leonard's wing. Vark had something of an obsession with Leonard III and his position of power as the (mentally deteriorating) King's remaining right hand man gave him authority to spout "prophecies" that the Gaullian people ate up hungrily. The truth of the matter, however, was that Vark was a delusional, potentially schizophrenic hobo of the fourteen hundreds and every one of his prophecies that came true were small, trivial, and purely matched up by coincidence. Vark had no powers, nor could he see the future. When Leonard III finally died, the kingdom was left in the hands of his seventy-two daughters (he had hundreds of concubines and the Gaullian Royal Family has a tendency toward multiple births) who were basically left to fight to the death and whoever lived would become the ruler of Gaullia. One would expect at least one of the girls to hold no interest in politics, but each and every one of them took up the sword and viciously battled as gladiators in the Hellenic Colosseum at the heart of Saint Clair. The last one standing was Mariannette Jeanne d'Orléans, daughter of the head of the city Orléans. D'Orléans would be known as a failure of a Queen, losing many wars and even more lives to the nations that sought to rise up against Gaullia and reclaim their independence. Vark's final prophecy was that in three hundred years, on a full moon, L'Illustre would return to the world for the third time and bring Gaullia back into power. By pure coincidence, three hundred years later, on a full moon, Queen Gabrielle St. Clair and Prince Leopold of Belgica would be parents to the first Prince in the Gaullian bloodline since Leonard III. Technology Category:Baltica Category:Places